The Reformed Church of Newtown

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The Reformed Church of Newtown (紐約新城歸正教會) is located in the Elmhurst neighborhood in Queens, New York, part of the Reformed Church in America. It was first establish by Dutch immigrants in 1731.^[1]

The church is located at 85-15 Broadway, Elmhurst, New York 11373. Sunday worship starts at 9AM in Mandarin; 10:30AM in Taiwanese; and 12PM in English. Its current pastors are the Rev. Norman Chen, The Rev. David Su, The Rev. James Long, and The Rev. Bill H.C. Lee.

The Reformed Church of Newtown was founded in 1731 by Dutch-speaking farmers and tradesmen. New York had originally been “New Amsterdam”, a Dutch Colony, and although the early members of Newtown were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, they held their services in the Dutch language still common in the community then called “Newtown.” Until 1802, services were exclusively in Dutch. They were in English and Dutch until 1849, after which they were in English only until the changing ethnicity of the 1980's. Later, some developers changed the name of the area to Elmhurst, but the church retained its original name, a name still carried also by the local high school and subway station. Some things did change, though. The original building, a log cabin (completed in 1735) had survived the struggles of the colonial days and the disruptions of the Revolutionary War days (during which the British seized it for use as an armory),^[2] but it was replaced in 1832 by the present sanctuary, which is a designated landmark building.^[3] The cornerstone of the original building cans still be seen in the foundation of our present structure. As the needs of the church and community changed, staff was added, structural improvements were made, and the preaching shifted from Dutch to English.

In 1956 Newtown celebrated her 225th Anniversary, and received greetings from President Eisenhower. For that occasion, Reverend A. Nelson Doak compiled a brief history of the parish^[2] that ended with words expressing his hope for Newtown’s future:

“May her doors never be shut. Keep them wide open with a welcome to all humanity: saints and sinners, rich and poor, black, brown, yellow, and white.”

In 1980, as Elmhurst was abruptly changing complexion, Rev. Doak’s hope for Newtown began to be fulfilled. His successor, Rev. David Boyce, perceiving the changing needs of the community, began a service for Taiwanese immigrants^[4] and later one for the increasing population of Tamil-speaking Indians the area. Now, the originally Dutch church had services in English, Taiwanese, and Tamil. The Tamil ministry was crippled by the untimely death of their minister, Rev. Paul Theodore, but some Tamil members were incorporated into the English service and continued in meaningful service with the congregation. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese ministry, led by a dynamic and multilingual evangelist Rev. Bill H.C. Lee, soon outnumbered Newtown’s “American” congregation, as the membership more than doubled from 1981 to 1982.^[1] The Taiwanese had been brought in, not as a distinct congregation, but as an additional ministry under the authority of Newtown’s leadership. As full members, they voted and soon had seats on the Newtown Consistory. Although there can technically be only one “senior pastor” in an RCA parish, Rev. Boyce, recognizing the unique circumstances of the day, had innovatively elevated Lee to be an equal “co-pastor” with him. In 1995 Newtown reached wider still, when Rev. David K.T. Su, who was being groomed to replace the aging Bill Lee, instead began a third worship service in Mandarin Chinese, the lingua franca of the Chinese world. Attended by both younger Taiwanese immigrants conversant in that dialect, and by the mainland Chinese steadily increasing their numbers across Queens, the new ministry saw steady growth. When Rev. Boyce retired, the “co-pastor” Lee became officially the senior pastor while Rev. Ronald Bechtel, son of RCA Missionaries to Taiwan took up the parallel English congregation. By now, the second generation of the Taiwanese members, having been reared in Queens, had mostly assimilated into the English ministry, making of it a unique mixture of aging Caucasians and youthful Asian-Americans. Evangelistic outreach coupled with Newtown’s location in the most ethnically diverse zip code in Queens a continued to draw all kinds of people into Newtown’s English ministry. The Reformed Church in America strives to fulfill the scriptural idea of being “a house of prayer for all nations,” and at Newtown that vision has been realized. On any given Sunday there is a Taiwanese service, a Mandarin service, and a multi-cultural service in which Greeks, Latinos, Asian-Indians, Pacific Rim Asians, Russians and “traditional Americans” worship together in English.

Newtown has been: a country parish, a city parish; a Dutch, English, Taiwanese, Tamil, Mandarin or mixed parish; a British armory and a place of prayer for the healing of the nations. We’ve changed intentionally when change was needed to serve shifting populations good news in a language their hearts could hold. We have been many things indeed, but what we are today by God’s grace is one Reformed Church, worshipping God in three languages: English, Taiwanese, and Mandarin. Furthermore, though we’ve changed and may yet change in many, many ways, we pray God that our message, like the cornerstone from the 1731 structure may always remain unchanged. Our message is that of one body (the “Church” of Scripture and the Ecumenical Creeds), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him (“rich and poor, black, brown, yellow, and white”) should not perish, but have eternal life.

Newtown is part of The Reformed Church in America, a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world. We are one of a thousand churches in a million ways doing one thing---following Christ in outreach to a lost and broken world so loved by God.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Kleiman, Dena "Immigrants Spur Renaissance for Queens Churches; A New Melting Pot: The City in the 80's A series of articles appearing periodically." New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 15, 1982. pg. B1, 2 pgs Document types: article Section: Metropolitan Report Source type: Historical Newspaper ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 118630567 Text Word Count 1600 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=118630567&sid=7&Fmt=2&clientId=55008&RQT=309&VName=HNP (sunscription). Retrieved March 19, 2007
2. ^ ^{a b} "225th marked by Queens church." Publication title: New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 3, 1956. pg. 34, 1 pgs. ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 94300957 Text Word Count 160 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=94300957&sid=7&Fmt=1&clientId=55008&RQT=309&VName=HNP (subscription) Retrieved March 19, 2007
3. ^ Peterson, Iver "Battle Looms on Landmarked Churches; Preservationists Fear Charter Changes Will Undercut the Law Battle Looms Over Landmarking Church Properties" New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 3, 1989. pg. R1, 2 pgs Document types: article Section: Real Estate Source type: Historical Newspaper ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 115494182 Text Word Count 2486 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=115494182&sid=7&Fmt=2&clientId=55008&RQT=309&VName=HNP(subscription). Retrieved March 19, 2007
4. ^ Kleiman, Dena "A Surge of Immigrants Alters New York's Face." New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Sep 27, 1982. pg. A1, 2 pgs Document types: front_page Source type: Historical Newspaper ISSN: 03624331 ProQuest document ID: 119549069 Text Word Count 1924 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=119549069&sid=7&Fmt=2&clientId=55008&RQT=309&VName=HNP (subscription). Retrieved March 19, 2007

[edit] External links

• The Reformed Church of Newtown official website